Apple iPhone 14 Long-Term Review – One Year Old, Still As Good As New

The Apple iPhone 14 starts at Rs 64,990 in India for the 128GB variant. There are two other variants – Rs 75,490 for the 256GB storage variant and Rs 109,900 for the 512GB storage variant.

The phone is available in six colour options: Purple, Blue, Midnight, Starlight, Purple and Red. You can buy the phone directly from Apple’s official website or Amazon, Flipkart, as well as Apple Premium Resellers.

The Apple iPhone 14 packs the following items inside the box:

• Phone
• Lighting to Type-C cable
• Documentation
• SIM ejector tool

Before we talk in detail about the Apple iPhone 14 long-term review, let’s see what the on-paper specs look like:

• Display: 6.1 inches OLED
• Chipset: Apple A15 Bionic
• RAM & ROM: 6GB 128GB, 6GB 256GB, 6GB 512GB
• Software: iOS v16
• Rear camera: 12MP + 12MP
• Selfie camera: 12MP
• Weight: 172 grams
• Dimensions: 146.7 x 71.5 x 7.8 mm

Let’s start off with the main discussion, how good is the camera quality of iPhone 14 after one year of usage? We all know that the iPhone tends to lose its clarity after updates. So, is it still like it used to be?

Well, I would say yes! The 12MP main camera still captures stunning shots in different lighting conditions. The colours of the building look very natural and yet pleasing to the eyes. Photos are packed with details and are sharp.

The dynamic range is really good as well. I was hoping to see some cloudy weather but nonetheless, the dark tree with the colourful building looks nice. The details are preserved and clearly seen.

Ultra-wide shots are also quite good. I see no or very minimal loss of details while comparing normal and ultra-wide shots. The colours still look vibrant and as good as when taken in normal mode.

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However, things don’t look very good when we zoom in. Here’s a comparison of the same shot taken in ultra-wide, normal mode and 5x zoom. The 5x zoom image is just not usable at all. The details are lacking and the whole image looks distorted.

Coming over to low-light shots, the iPhone 14 doesn’t fail to impress. Sometimes, I go out for a late night walk in the park and here are some shots that I took. The details are quite good and the image looks quite bright and hence the colours also look good. But trust me, it was not like this in real.

The jumping puppy was a tough shot to take and the shaky image can justify that. However, I still like how the overall images turn up bright and well-light.

Talking about the front camera, the 12MP selfie camera captures crisp and sharp selfies. The details can be easily seen, like my facial hair and even the background hoarding. Portrait selfies were also spot-on. Edge detection was great and the background blur looked quite natural.

I have to say that the battery backup of Apple iPhone 14 after a year of usage isn’t the best, especially after updating to iOS 17. Before that, the battery life was pretty nice, with mostly 6-7 hours of screen on time. But after updating to iOS 17, it averages around 5 hours, which is really disappointing.

Moreover, the Apple iPhone 14 heats up a lot, especially while charging. I don’t know what kind of updates Apple is pushing, but they have to fix it soon. Anyways, getting back to battery performance, my iPhone 14’s battery health stands at 95 per cent, which is pretty good.

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Both wireless and wired charging works fine however, the phone heats up even more during wireless charging. So, I prefer to use wired charging, which takes a little more than an hour to fully charge the phone.

I am pretty happy with the display of my Apple iPhone 14. The colours, details, and vibrancy are superb. Even the peak brightness is great. I can easily see and use the screen under direct sunlight. I also have an iPhone 13, but it’s always a struggle to use it under sunlight.

Other than that, I still enjoy watching web series on Netflix and HDR videos on YouTube. The OLED display offers deep blacks and punchy colours. Playing games on it is also very enjoyable. The only sad part is the standard 60Hz refresh rate.

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True tone and night shift still work flawlessly. Even the new feature, the StandBy mode, activates instantly when I put it on the wireless charger horizontally turning the phone into a big clock on my desk.

Coming over to performance, the Apple iPhone 14 doesn’t disappoint at all, even after a year. It still runs all the demanding apps and games with ease. Thanks to the Apple A15 Bionic chipset, which handles everything like a champ.

I face no issues while performing day to day tasks like texting, calling, or watching videos. My day involves a lot of Instagram scrolling and gaming and the iPhone 14 holds up pretty well.

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I have not noticed any major signs of lags or shutters in the past one year. Well yeah, I have seen some apps freeze like Cred, Paytm and a few more but thats an app issue and gets fixed with an app update.

If we talk about gaming, the iPhone 14 can run any game on the app store that you can find. Well, my favourite is the BGMI and I play it almost every day. Although it’s a year old, it still runs the game smoothly at high settings without any issues.

I have not noticed any major frame drops or lags while playing. Well yes, it does get a little warm if I play for extended hours but that’s pretty normal.

My Apple iPhone 14 is running on the latest iOS 17 update at the time I’m writing this review. The new update brings a lot of new features along with it, with some issues as well, like the battery life and heating issues.

But let’s talk about the positive for a minute. Starting with the NameDrop feature! Just bring two iOS 17 running iPhones together and boom, your contact details are shared with each other. Not gonna use it every day but it’s still pretty awesome. The same goes for AirDrop; just bring the devices together and share the file seamlessly.

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Another feature is the StandBy Mode which kicks in when you put your iPhone on charging horizontally. It basically turns your whole display into a big clock and calendar which you can customise as well. The control centre remains unchanged in the lastest update.

There are any other features and overall improvements in the phone, like in the keyboard, offline maps, live voicemail, and auto-delete OPTs. Some of these are available in India right now, and some are yet to come. All-in-all, I really like the new iOS 17 update and the features it brings along.